Syroc's In Flight OMAKE: A Faker's Wings Edition
by Syroc
Summary: An outrigger series based on the story In Flight story by Gabriel Blessing. Yes, I know it's fanfiction based on fanfiction. Welcome to meta.
1. Chapter 1

**A Faker's Wings**

"Is that all you got, Mina-chan?" Karasuba asked, grinning with perverse pleasure at the state I was in. "And here I thought you'd give me a decent fight!"

I would have to agree with her on that point. From what I'd seen in my earlier fights with Sekirei, I'd really hoped that my skills would a match for hers. But it seemed that the Black Sekirei wasn't the leader of the Disciplinary Squad for nothing, as our brief struggle had proven.

Even with the surprise that I was much more than an ordinary human, even with fantastic swords of mythical power and superhuman strength and speed to guide them, I had been unable to defeat her. She'd been in hundreds of battle so far, whereas I had only a single war (albeit a gruesome one of epic proportions) and a few ventures out to hunt Apostles or other mythical creatures. I still had a ways to go before I could match someone like Karasuba with skill alone.

Luckily, however, I had one last trump to play.

"Master." Akitsu murmured in concern at my side.

The two of us had fought against the Black Sekirei. It had been a harsh battle, a _losing_ battle, but we weren't gone yet.

But there was something she could do for me, something that would

"Akitsu." I answer, grimly determined. "I'm going to need your help for this."

"Ah." The ice-woman responded, a small blush appearing on her face. "Right now, master?"

"Yes, now." I affirm, and turn to face her fully. "There's no other way."

"Ah?" Karasuba leered sadistically at us, flourishing her sword absently as she watched our exchange. "Have you been holding out on me, Mina-chan? Do you have one last trick up your sleeve?"

I turn to give her frank look.

"Of course, assuming you give me the chance to try it out."

"Try?" She asked, and now her predatory gaze turned curious. "Something new? I think I would like to see that. Take your time, ashikabi-kun. I'll wait for you."

"Right." I face Akitsu once more, and she nods almost imperceptibly at me.

She draws close and kisses me fully on the lips.

For a moment I feel the slight drain on my od, the normal exchange between ashikabi and sekirei. But then that flow reversed, and I was receiving a massive amount of prana.

That was one of the most impressive abilities of the sekirei, I had found. Their almost effortless exchange of prana put many of the most sophisticated techniques to shame, and it was only a matter of finding out how it worked in order to find some way to reverse the ability. Akitsu had only been too willing to offer her services in developing the ability, and though I was sure the rest of my flock would have _loved_ to join her I felt it was best to stick with someone who at least had an inkling of what to expect. I could only imagine what kind of kink Matsu would develop from my repeatedly sniffing her, and to be honest I was still uncomfortable with anyone knowing what it was I did in my makeshift laboratory.

And so it was the Akitsu and I had found a method to fully share power, trading prana as needed. It had taken a long time, but the results had been amazing.

And now I would need every ounce of power she could spare.

Her body went slack as I drew heavily on her, shivering quietly with the experience. I wasn't quite sure what it was like for her, but she had never complained when we had practised before.

My magical circuits surged with power, almost painfully so.

But it was enough power for me to unleash my ultimate weapon. My ultimate reality. I close my eyes, and concentrate.

"I am the bone of my sword." I begin, and I tap deep into the cavernous void inside of me that was my Reality Marble. My circuits warm as I tap into them for what was to come, the manifestation of my internal world.

And then something inside of me _twisted_.

It felt like my insides and suddenly been pierced by a thousand hooks and then pulled away, ripping me apart from the inside out. It was the worst pain I had ever experienced. Worse than Lacer's impalement, worse than Berserker's evisceration, worse than being pierced over and over again by Gilgamesh. My magical circuits blazed with sudden power, and I _knew_ that something had gone horribly wrong with the only spell that I knew.

"Guh!" I grunt in pain, sagging down to my knees. I clutched at my belly with one hand, and supported myself over the groun with the other, breathing heavily. I'm not sure how I could keep doing so: I was sure my lungs had been torn to shreds.

"Master...?" Akitsu asked, full of concern. She rushed to my side, trying to support me with her body as whatever I had done to myself continued.

My body spasmed, another internal writhing turning everything inside of me to mush. I screamed in agony, and was mildly alarmed to hear a metallic quality to my voice.

No, not a metallic quality. My voice was like the tortured wail of steel bent too far, a blade being broken. The sound of a soul being twisted inwards on itself.

Perhaps it was my mind desperately trying to find some way to distract itself from the torture it was enduring, but a sudden revelation seared into me in the midst of that haze of pain. An explanation of sorts for the sekirei's impossible power.

Their natural prana was so much more potent than a human's. That much was obvious to see from way they twisted the natural world around them with their powers. But it was also incredibly volatile when combined with a foreign source. A human source. With just a little of my od, a sekirei would have enough power to unlock their norito and for a time gain unparalleled strength.

And I, fool that I was, had almost completely drained Akitsu of _all_ of her prana. Then I'd combined both of our prana, and reached deep into my soul for my internal world.

And now that foreign prana was coursing through my body like a thousand blades, an alien force trying to impose itself on a system that could not support it. It was trying to warp my very soul into a familiar shape, one that could cope with the power it offered. And it was finding that I, unlike other humans, was not limited by my physical shape. I could _change_.

"My body is made of blades...!" I gasp out in horror, realizing what was happening.

Another surge of power wracked my body, and as if sensing what was to come I pushed Akitsu away from me.

I was becoming fragile.

I was breaking.

I was about to become dangerous.

Fire blazed out from my body, my Reality Marble manifesting itself inside of me. My back suddenly straightened as if someone had just shoved steel through my spine.

"_I am the wings of my covenant_." I sing out, the aria a twisted parody of what it once was. My voice is like the hum of steel, vibrating with impossible power. "_Blades are my soul and blood is my destiny_."

Behind me magical fire surges in preparation for what is to come. The aching in my back fills me with dread, as I know what is about to come. I had seen it many times before with my sekirei, after all.

My body and soul shudders as it is twisted beyond what it could bear, transfigured by the alien power of the sekirei. My circuits burn inside of me like molten steel, searing my body as they tore me apart. The blade that was my existence was growing with power with every second, manifesting more and more strongly as the alien prana fuelled it...

"_My feathers are as a thousand swords._"

There was no wings of light for me. No, not when I was so obviously Not Sekirei. But in a way I was also very Not Human. And the magic _knew_. It found a way to manifest a pair of wings in the only way I could.

Blades tore themselves from my back, cutting through my flesh like butter. Though I could not see them, I knew instinctively what others would see.

Wings of steel, stained with my own blood and bladed with an impossible keen. Where there should have been plumes and pinions there would instead be swords and daggers. My wings were made of swords. My wings were death.

But they do not fade! They are a distortion of a sekirei's wings, made real by magic whereas theirs was illusive and temporary. I am aware of each and every movement I make, as it moves the unfamiliar limbs I now find myself with.

"_Unaware of loss,"_ The pain begins to subside as my transfiguration nears completion. I allow myself to sink down slightly, beating the air with the twisted parody of a sekirei's power. "_Nor aware of gain."_

Bakuya and Kanshou appeared in my hands, appearing unbidden in my hands from nothingness. Thousands of other blades flit in and out of my mind, each of them just a thought away from becoming real.

"_Withstood pain to become the ultimate weapon._"

Another twist jolts through my existence, and I stagger backwards from it. Behind me I hear a gentle tinkling of metal as the movement causes my wings to shift.

Karasuba watches with a strange look on her face, a mix of morbid fascination and mounting concern. What was happening was _far_ beyond anything her life had prepared her for, and it looked like she was currently trying to decide whether she should simply strike me down now or see where this was going.

It hardly mattered in any case. She was far too late to stop me. My body was already made of swords.

"_I have no re_grets." The metallic quality leaves my voice halfway through my incantation, and my voice returns to something like what it was before I had made this terrible mistake. "This is the only path."

Dimly, I could feel a dense nexus of magical circuits humming across my forehead, burning across my skin like a brand. I suspected I knew what I would find there later: a sekirei crest. If I had been able to think properly I might have laughed at the irony of it. At last I had a crest to call my own. If only it was natural.

I right myself, standing tall.

"My life is Unlimited Blade Works."

There is no longer a field of blades. There is no nightmare realm to great me. My soul is no longer what it was, twisted by alien magics so that I could at once become more and less than I was. Before, only a part of me had been Not Human. Now that part was the only thing left to me. Everything else had been cut away by my Reality Marble.

I was very much Not Human. But I was likewise very much Not Sekirei. I was an aberration of both, warped by a combination of both our magics.

For a moment silence reigns in the aftermath of my transfiguration.

"My, my Mina-chan," Karasuba suddenly breaks the silence as she recovers from her transfixion. Her katana swirls in her hands, and she prepared herself to go on the offensive once more. "How dramatic! I had no idea humans were capable of _this_."

I find myself grinning insanely at her words.

"They aren't." I state, and I raise my blades into the unique stance that was my own. Behind me I could hear the rustle of steel as my swords fanned out behind me, an impossible array of weaponry. For a moment Karasuba's eyes go wide at my proclamation, and then her leer returns.

She charges towards me, and with a detached calm I bring to mind a hundred blades. They rain down from my wings like feathers before they slash towards the Black Sekirei as if borne by a spectral wind. She dodges, she blocks, but in the end there is no defence against my storm of swords. It is only a matter of time before she it cut down, ripped apart before she can pose a threat to me.

Our battlefield is a distortion of the landscape of the previous Unlimited Blade Works. There are no hills, yet before me is a field of swords with their points dug into the ground. I have no doubt that I could, if only for a moment, change those nameless blades into legendary implements of untold power. I could rain down instant death upon all but the most powerful of enemies. I could-

I feel another jolt run through me, a sudden weakness enveloping me.

It seems I had reached the end of whatever power had been supplied me. My Reality Marble fades, and with it my deadly wings vanish. I left bereft of my fantastic power, the wounds on my back bleeding freely from my transformation. I close my eyes and try desperately to deaden myself to the pain of my body and the horrible sense of loss and impossible loneliness that suddenly courses through me.

A moment later I feel a warm body next to me, holding me closely. I am so shocked by the sudden embrace that for a moment I can do nothing, paralysed by my surprise. And then I snap open my eyes to see Akitsu looking me over with worried eyes. She is staring fixedly at something. Something that she has seen before, but had not expected to see again. Least of all on me.

She is staring at my forehead. At my crest.

I hold her closely, trying to fill that impossible void inside of me with her warmth.

"I'm broken." I whisper weakly before finally giving in to fatigue.

_I am the wings of my covenant_  
_ Blades are my soul and blood is my destiny _  
_My feathers are as a thousand swords _  
_Unaware of loss, Nor aware of gain _  
_Withstood pain to become the ultimate weapon _  
_I have no regrets. This is the only path. _  
_My life is Unlimited Blade Works_


	2. Chapter 2

**A Faker's Wings: Enough**

"-at I want to know is... ...rasuba?"

Voices.

Distant, disjointed and half-heard words. The sound is drowned out by... something. sleep? Maybe. Tired.

"Ah." Closer. I can hear this voice almost perfectly, though it still sounds as if coming from far away. Akitsu. Yes. "Master killed her."

Master? Who was that? Ah. I am. I killed someone? Yes. With wings of blood and steel. With my broken soul, I killed someone.

I begin to feel a dull ache on my forehead. It feels like someone is pushing down on it, like it had been burned, like it had been cut. All at once.

It reminds me of the hollow space inside of me. Where the things that had not been blades had been. Hopes. Fears. Hates. I can still feel them, but they are so very weak. They are replaced by a foreign need, a terrible lack in my very being that I know instinctively can only be filled by someone else. My chosen one. My-

"-ossible! No human could kill the Bla..." The voice degenerates into mumbling once more. Why are they so far away? How can they hope to be heard from such a distance?

"Ah." Akitsu again. So close. "Master is not human."

Not Human? No. Of course not. I am a sword. A broken, distorted sword. I am the wings of my covenant, and my wings are made of blades. But what was my covenant? My promise? I can't remember...

"Don't be stupid!" Louder. Scared. Angry. Homura. Yes, that's who that voice was. "He, he's still the same!"

Akitsu does not answer.

Instead, I feel footsteps approaching through vibrations from the ground. They hurt my head. A moment later I feel something cool and wet against my forehead, and until just that moment I had not realized how hot it had been.

"Just, just- gah! Just tell us when he's awake, okay?" Homura says sternly, his voice heavy with worry. "And don't let the others see _that_! Everyone's worried enough as it is."

"Yes."

For a moment there is only silence, and then I feel retreating footsteps. Time stretches on as I drift inside a haze of sleep and fatigue, content to simply rest. I can hear small noises, far away things. Footsteps, voices, doors opening and closing. They are easy to ignore, however. I am far too busy feeling the still-fresh wound on my existence.

And 'wound' is exactly the right word. I can feel the differences in myself as if they were a physical force. It is almost like a phantom pain in a limb I no longer have: I _know _it isn't real, but that doesn't stop it from hurting. The desperate _need_ I feel, coupled with the painful knowledge that I can _never_ fulfil it. I would need to be a Sekirei for that, after all. And I was most definitely Not Sekirei. A pale imitation of one, perhaps. I could conceivably pass for one if not examined too closely. But still: Not Sekirei.

I can all but hear Gilgamesh laughing at me already. Not only was I mongrel and a faker, but now I was even imitating an alien species.

It depresses me that I cannot work up even a _bit_ of anger at that thought. But it _does_ push me out of my happy state of oblivion.

I stir, wakefulness setting into me. I slowly open my eyes to find Akitsu hovering over me, and I find her placid face to be a great comfort. At least there was some consistency to all this.

"Akitsu," I mumble sleepily, then began to sit up with a small groan.

"Shirou-sama," The ice-woman greeted, leaning back to a more normal position. A small blush appeared on her face as she did, and it was then that I noticed I had been stripped while unconscious. "How are you feeling?"

It was strangely nostalgic for a moment. How many times before had Saber and Rin been forced to do much the same thing for me? Too many to count, to be sure.

I shook my head to clear it of those thoughts. It wasn't the pain at the memory that caused me to, but rather the lack of it.

"I've been better." I say truthfully, but nevertheless lying through my teeth. It was an understatement if there ever was one.

As if sensing my untruth, the cool cloth slips off my forehead as I managed to force myself into a sitting position. This reveals the crest beneath it, as well as causing my head to ache with fresh pain. I must have flinched at the feeling, because Akitsu wasted no time on easing me back down to the bed, forcing me gently to lay down and rest. Once my head is against the pillow once more she wastes no time in replacing the cool cloth back on me before she returns to sitting quietly at my side.

For a long time I simply lay there, allowing time to flow by without paying it heed. There wasn't a whole lot else for me to do otherwise. I know in a clinical kind of way that before my... 'alteration', I would no doubt have forced myself to act despite my pain and fatigue. Things were different now, though.

"Is everyone alright?" I eventually ask, shocked in myself for not thinking to ask earlier. A fight with the Disciplinary Squad is not to be ignored, even if I had taken care of the most dangerous opponent before she could do much harm.

"Ah." Akitsu murmurs, looking away from me for a moment. "Tsukiumi was hurt by her opponent."

I felt a pang of guilt, which perhaps was a sign that I wasn't _completely_ different from the person I had been. I could at least still feel bad about endangering those who loved me.

"Nobody else?" I asked, curious. While I was certainly _glad_ there hadn't been any other injuries, it _did_ seem odd that the self-proclaimed 'most powerful sekirei' would be the only one hurt.

The pale woman gave her normal pause at the question, as if considering it.

"We withdrew after you were hurt." She admitted, somewhat reluctantly. "Homura said we could not risk you any more than we already had."

Oh. Yes. That made sense.

Silence stretches out between us once more as neither of us seems exactly eager to trace through the aftermath of what had most likely been our first defeat. Well, hardly a defeat. We'd taken the most dangerous enemy out of the Sekirei plan, and only had one injured person on our side to show for it. But we'd certainly _retreated_. Would anyone see that as a sign of weakness, a signal to attack? Would they dare to even if it was interpreted in such a way? The reputation I had cultivated was a formidable one, after all. Most of the participants had seen some of what my flock could do, and everyone 'knew' that I was a murderous psychopath. (Thank you, Haruka, for spreading _that_ particular notion around even more.)

These are not thoughts I am particularly concerned with, however. I know they are important, and that I need to consider them at some point. But there is a much more pressing need inside of me, however.

"Did you feel this too?" I suddenly ask, unable to stop the question from blurting out me.

"Ah?" Akitsu glances at my face, confusion on her face. "Feel what?"

A feel myself blush, suddenly uncomfortable with talking about my feelings with the woman who was, for all intents and purposes, my wife. I suppose I simply wasn't used to caring for myself, and this whole experience had certainly done nothing to help.

"This, this hollowness." I eventually get out, a small nervous blush appearing on me. "It feels like I'm missing something important, like, like-" I trail off unintelligibly, words failing me.

"Like there is a light in your life you can never have? Like you will never be able to find what you are so desperately looking for? Like you are worth less than nothing?" Akitsu suggested calmly, studying me carefully.

For a moment I can only stare dumbly at her, my eyes wide with surprise. That must have been the most I had ever heard her speak in a whole conversation, let alone at once. I force myself to nod in spite of my surprise, to which the woman looks away with a sad look on her face.

"Ah." Another pause, and then... "Yes. That is how all scrapped numbers feel."

A scraped number? But how could I...? Well, I guess it did make a kind of sense. After all, I couldn't have an Ashikabi. I was far too much... whatever it was that I had become for that to be possible. Maybe the alien prana had altered me to take that into consideration, to make me approximate a sekirei as closely as I could, even with my flaws?

I sighed heavily, closing my eyes to better block out a sudden surge of pain that washed through my skull. It lasts only for a moment, and then I look back to Akitsu, who looked like she was on the brink of crying. Why would she be- oh.

"This wasn't your fault." I say firmly, forcing myself to sound as convincing as possible. "It was an accident. If anyone's to blame, it's me. I didn't research this long enough."

She looks at me like she doesn't believe me, and I cannot help but feel sad that I failed so spectacularly to comfort her. Because she really wasn't to blame for all this: I was the one who had set this all into motion. It was my recklessness that had resulted in this and it was my magic that had twisted me into this existence.

I know these things, and I know that she must do to. But I doubt what she wants right now is reassurances. And what I want is something a great deal simpler than that.

"How did you deal with it?" I suddenly ask, hoping for an answer even more than to change the subject. I silently scold myself for asking such a blunt question, realizing after I had asked it that it would probably have been a careless question to ask from someone who had only recently learned that her belief had been wrong.

"Ah," Her expression changes once more, this time to recollection. "I didn't."

Well. That was depressing. I would have to deal with this feeling forever?

But it seemed Akitsu wasn't quite done with her explanation, as almost as soon as she got done with her abrupt answer a soft smile appeared on her lips.

"You found me, and promised to take care of me." She says, and for a moment I can almost convince myself there is warmth in her voice. "Even though I could never hope to bear your mark, even though I was broken, you said you keep me safe. For one like me, it was enough."

My throat tightens uncomfortably, and I can only stare at her she admits this. There is no blush on her as she says this, no hint of nervousness or embarrassment. There was only that smile, that warm smile that I wanted so very much for myself. I think I could understand now why Akitsu had always been so quiet and reserved when the other members of my flock were being winged or getting their Noritos. I could only have guessed before how devastating it must have been for her to be reminded, even as she was standing right next to the one who had come to mean so much to her, that she could never have what they did.

Without quite knowing what it was I was doing, I reached out and seized one of her hands. The action seemed to startle her for a moment, and then her attention settled back on me.

"Will you take care of me?" I asked in a quiet voice, and I can almost see my other self, the one that had been severed clean from me, sneering at me for such weakness. I ignore that thought, though.

"Ah," The snow-woman smiles again, and then bends down to hold me close. "Yes. For ever and ever."

The feel of her warm body close to me and the love in her voice weren't quite what the gaping void inside of me needed. The desperate need was still there, still gnawing away at me. But for now, with Akitsu next to me, I could ignore it.

For now, this was enough.


	3. Chapter 3

**A Faker's Wings: Practical And Stylish**

"That's a headband." I accuse, pointing at the offending garment.

"Yeah," Homura agreed nervously, pointedly _not_ looking at either me or the object of my focus. "I picked it up for you yesterday."

I look at the thing for a long time, not quite comprehending where exactly Homura was hoping to go with this. At my side, Akitsu studies the thing intensely with her normal placid expression, her hand intertwined with mine. She had yet to leave my side ever since I had first woken, and I was glad for her presence. Her simple presence dulled the aching need inside of me into something I could almost ignore.

"_Why_ did you get me a headband?" I finally ask, giving up trying to divine his motivations.

"I thought you might like it." The host answered, though he didn't sound very enthusiastic about it. "The emblem on it was kind of interesting."

I hadn't even noticed it, as I'd been much more interested in finding out why Homura had been so keen on foisting the thing on him. But now that it was pointed out to me it _did_ make me grin wryly. It looked like one of the silly emblems that cropped up all the time in various media: a sword superimposed over a pair of feathery wings. It looked like something a parent might give to a child more concerned with how 'cool' it might look than the practicality of it. Not the sort of gift for a grown man, however. It wasn't even winter, for goodness sake!

I give a quiet sigh and pushed the thing away.

"Thank you, but I don't think I'll be needing it for the summer." I say diplomatically.

"Maybe you could just try it on, see how it looks on you?" Homura suggested, and the almost pleading note to his voice caused me to pause before answering.

Why would he want me to wear something like this? It wasn't like it was very warm, or that it covered anything impor-

Oh.

Yes, that made sense.

I give the thing another speculative glance before shrugging and putting it on, carefully making sure that it covered my forehead.

"Did I get all of it?" I ask, deciding to do away with subtlety.

"All of what?" Homura asked nervously, his eyes flitting to my forehead for a moment.

"All of my crest." I answer blithely, annoyed that Homura was trying to dance around the subject.

Homura looks surprised for a moment, but then scowls as he realizes that I'd seen through his ruse.

"Yeah, you did." He admitted, looking away shamefacedly.

I look at him for a moment, waiting for some other response.

"So are you going to tell me _why_ you want me to hide it?" I ask eventually.

"I don't want the others to worry." Homura answered, and levelled me a contemplative look. "They were already worried sick that you were hurt in your fight. Seeing _that_..."

I didn't need to hear the rest. I could easily guess just what the others might think about my newest... modification.

Most of those who knew about scrapped numbers had initially been wary of Akitsu even after they'd known about our unique situation. Tsukiumi, for one, had had to acclimatize herself to the other woman's presence. And even then, I was certain that it was only because she had come to regard her as a 'rival in love' rather than 'freakishly strong mistake of nature just waiting for the most inopportune moment to go insane', though I'm sure that now that she's actually been winged the latter view has long since vanished. I'm sure that seeing my crest would merit at least _some_ kind of reaction, though I couldn't be certain what that might be.

I found it mildly ironic that a member of my flock was now trying to _help _me keep secrets, though. Such a far cry from the time when they had all been so very eager to learn of their ashikabi's sordid past. Though I suppose my harsh punishment to Matsu for her probing might have helped more than a little in curbing their curiosity.

I frown slightly, and then sit up fully. I suppose this might have also been the reason why I had yet to meet any other members of my flock than Akitsu and Homura, though I couldn't help but wonder how they had managed to keep the normally impetuous Musubi from randomly peeking in. Let alone Miya, who would likely be not-at-all deterred by their protestations.

So I can only guess that Homura would get me this gift if-

"Shirou-tan?" Matsu queried through the door, proving my suspicions correct. "Can we come in?"

Homura shot me another guilty look, and I sighed quietly to myself.

"Yes, please come in." I answer calmly, and force myself to smile reassuringly.

The door swings open, and I had only a moment to steady myself before I found myself buried in the bountiful bosom of Musubi as she hugged me tightly, sobbing happily.

"OhmygoshweweresoworriedShirou-san!" The excitable young woman gasped out all at once in one stream of words. "Wedidn'-"

Anything else was drowned out as I found myself buried in my flock, all of whom seemed to have taken it into their heads to surge forth from the hallway and hug me into submission. My arms began flailing as I soon realized that there was a real danger of drowning in cleavage in this situation.

"Mmph hmm MPH!" I try to get out, only to find that the words were muffled.

"Alright, give him some air." Homura advised, and I could hear a trace of mirth in his voice as he did so.

Traitor.

My flock seemed to realize they were inadvertently smothering me at his words, and quickly disengaged themselves from me, each one of them wearing varying expressions of either embarrassment (Tsukiumi and to a lesser degree Matsu), shamelessness (Kazehana and to a greater degree Matsu) or sheer happy exuberance (Musubi and Kusano). But they all wore happy smiles, each of them glad to see that I was unharmed.

Jealousy was never something I had been prone to, but at that moment I felt that unfamiliar feeling surge inside of me. I forced it down, trying to ignore it to the best of my ability. They shouldn't have to deal with this problem on top of all the others I had already brought into their lives. I could deal with this. For now, until the end of the Sekirei Plan at least.

"Hello." I greet wearily, smiling sheepishly at the women in front of me.

"I, it is good to see that you are well, husband." Tsukiumi says nervously, a light blush appearing on her face as she does so. "I was worried when my rival told us that you needed rest."

"Ahh, well, I'm not quite better yet." I answer remorsefully. "But what about you? I heard you were hurt."

"A, ah!" She stammers out, the blush intensifying at my apparent concern over her well-being. "It was not so bad. As if they could harm me, the most powerful sekirei!"

I found myself grinning earnestly at the boast even as I noticed that she was favouring her left side slightly. Maybe she still had fresh bruises? Or maybe just soreness? Either way, I was still responsible for her injuries. I should have been there to protect her.

"Sword!" Kusano suddenly said, snapping me out of my slump. I looked over at her, and saw that she was staring wide-eyed and pointing at my forehead with an excited grin. "And wings!"

My smile turned genuine in that moment. I couldn't help it.

"Yes, Kuu-chan." I agree with her.

The others seemed to take notice of my newest accessory, and where now examining it as well.

"Ah!" Musubi suddenly chirped exuberantly. "So it was for Shirou-san! Musubi was wondering why Homura-san got it!"

"Yes," Matsu nodded, a small frown appearing on her lips. "Matsu was wondering as well."

"Ah, I felt a bit of a chill." I explain, lying easily in answer to the unspoken question.

"A chill? Are you sick, husband?" Tsukiumi said, latching onto the word and drawing her own conclusions from it. "Hmm, I thought humans got paler when they were ill, but I might have gotten that mixed up."

I blinked at that, my smile faltering.

"What?" I ask curiously.

"Well, I thought that was how it worked. But you look a lot tanner than usual, so I could have been wrong." She elaborates.

I was tanner than usual? I look down speculatively at my hands, and I had to agree that there was some truth to that statement. Curious.

"Ah!" Musubi suddenly perks up, and points at me. "Musubi heard something like that too! Maybe it was hair that got paler?"

I look up sharply at that, my eyes wide in horror. Tanner skin, paler hair? That sounded a bit too familiar for my comfort.

Kazehana shook her head

"No, that's not right." The elder Sekirei refuted, looking at me curiously. Something seemed to grab her attention, "Kuu-chan, don't do - _what the hell is __**that**__?_"

The exclamation only made sense when one took stock of a few things, which I had not done while I had been focussing on the fragment of the conversation. The first thing to consider was that Kusano, still entranced by my headband, had snuck up on me in order to get a better look at it. The second thing was that she had apparently decided that she wanted it more than I did, and had lifted it off of me in one smooth movement that I didn't even notice until it was done. The last and most important thing was that my forehead was now fully exposed to my flock.

Oh _no_.

"Uhm, I can explain?" I said nervously as I saw my flock's relief that I was whole and unharmed change swiftly to shock and dismay that I had not come out of the ordeal unchanged.

"I should hope so!" Tsukiumi said loudly, her eyes never leaving my forehead for a moment. "And you can start with why you have something like _that!_"

I try to grin reassuringly, but my flock was having nothing of it. Even Musubi's ever-present cheerfulness had vanished into what looked like shocked disbelief. It seemed that _some_ kind of explanation was expected.

Well, at least I had already steeled myself to this possibility. With a small shrug, I begin to explain.

"Remember when I said that I was given a Sealing Designation for research into forbidden magic?" I ask rhetorically, and when my flock nodded I continued. "Well, it's forbidden for a _reason_. My magic can, if I want, change reality itself. It can change _me_."

Even now I could feel that hollowness inside of me, shredding away at my being in order to reshape me into something else.

The sekirei nod at the explanation, though Matsu appears to have a thoughtful frown on her face for a moment before I continue.

"And sometimes it can even do it if I don't want it to, if I'm not careful." I add, and it seemed that for a moment comprehension dawned on my flock. "I didn't do enough research, and when I tried something out, well, it didn't work quite as I wanted it to."

Matsu frowned thoughtfully at this, then raised a hand as if to ask a question before thinking better of it and simply asked me directly.

"But you're still human, right? You aren't _really_ a..." She seemed hesitant to give voice to the possibility, as if doing so might somehow make it more real.

"A scrap?" I supply, and shake my head with a rueful smile. Well, I might as well lie a _little_, just to reassure them. Best not to tell them that I'm as close to one as I could possible get. "No. I'm not. Here, let me explain what I can..."

I spent the next half-hour explaining things to my flock as best I could, trying with each question to allay some of their worries.

It was the least I could do.

*_Later!_*

Thinking back to a few hours ago, I was uncertain if I particularly appreciated being so thoroughly proven wrong. I had been hoping that they would have accepted the change in me with a small amount of shock and maybe dismay. I had been prepared for fear, and maybe even a bit of shunning.

What I had _not_ expected that they would, almost to a one, unite in taking turns to baby me.

After a spending most of my young adult life taking care of myself, this state of affairs was at once confusing and more than a little dismaying. It was like they expected me to fall to pieces at any moment and start doing whatever it was scrapped numbers did when things went bad, and were doing their best to take care of everything.

They'd even tried to stop me from making dinner. I'm pretty sure the only reason Musubi and Matsu had eventually agreed to let me was the betrayed look I gave them when they announced to me that they would be taking care of it.

It didn't matter whether I had been horrifically scarred by my disastrous attempt to harness the power of the Sekirei: the kitchen was _my_ realm!

I was just about to get started on our meal when I noticed something just outside, a sudden movement. It gave me a moment's pause, and after a quick internal debate I decided to investigate further. It was probably one of my flock squabbling amongst themselves as seemed to be the norm, but there wasn't any harm in making sure it didn't escalate.

Looking through the window, I gave a sharp intake of breath when I realized that my initial suspicions had been wrong. _Very_ wrong. In fact, it was as horribly wrong as I could possibly think of the situation possibly being without the Clocktower being involved. Which it might be, though I was still hoping that things had not gone quite _that_ cataclysmically wrong.

Standing outside in close formation with rifles at the ready were several squads of MBI mercenaries, attired in their crisp uniforms. It looked like they were in the process of surrounding Izumo Inn, and were doing a good job of it too.

A moment later there was a loud knock at the front door, followed by a provocative call from a voice that I recognized from an earlier skirmish: Benitsubasa, the Crimson Sekirei.

"Can Shirou come out to play?"


End file.
